Risk mitigation strategy

Features - Safety Focus

Auto shredders are very powerful machines, yet encountering just one unshreddable item can cause serious safety issues. Unshreddables include things such as big heavy castings, gasoline tanks or propane tanks. When an unshreddable enters a yard’s shredder, it could damage the machine and in certain cases lead to an explosion or fire.

“Unshreddables can do a lot of damage to your automobile shredder, and they are also a safety factor,” says Jim Stepanek, North America general sales manager at Metso Recycling, headquartered in Helsinki, with U.S. offices in San Antonio.

David Borsuk is a senior advisor to Fond du Lac, Wisconsin-based Sadoff Iron & Metal. He previously led regulatory, quality and environmental compliance for the company. Borsuk says objects like propane tanks, sealed gas containers and airbags have been culprits in explosions and fires at scrap yards. Additionally, he says scrap yards are seeing a growing number of fires and explosions caused by lithium-ion batteries.

In the past year, a few North American scrap yards have started to turn to preshredders to improve safety and efficiency at their main shredders. Stepanek says preshredders are especially advantageous in helping to detect unshreddables that could damage the main shredder or cause an explosion or other safety hazards.

“The preshredder takes a lot of burden off of the main shredder,” Stepanek says. “Your preshredder turns your main shredder into a finished shredder. You’re feeding preshredded materials without unshreddables,” he adds.

Prevent with a preshredder

Preshredders have been fairly common in Europe for about a decade. Stepanek says many of the auto shredders used in Europe are smaller than those typically used in the United States, so a preshredder is helpful in breaking down feedstock for the main shredder. European scrap yards also tend to be in more urban areas and face more regulations designed to minimize explosions.

While only a handful of North American scrap yards have added preshredders, Stepanek says interest in preshredders at U.S. scrap yards has grown in the last year.

“It’s a fairly strong market; people are looking at ways to make their operations more efficient,” he says.

Also, U.S. scrap yards are facing more regulations designed to minimize explosions and noise pollution. Preshredders are one tool to help reduce these risks.

In April, Wendt Corp., Buffalo, New York, unveiled the Wendt MTB EZR preshredder at the Institute of Scrap Recycling Industries (ISRI) 2019 Convention & Exposition in Los Angeles. The company developed it in conjunction with France-based MTB. Ethan Willard, business development manager at Wendt, says the company saw increased demand for preshredders in the last year and decided to come up with a solution.

“We were seeing demand go up quite a bit,” he says. “People are more interested in preshredders both because of stricter environmental regulations as well as safety concerns. The benefits of preshredders are starting to get out in North America.”

“You can’t make an assumption on what a yard will accept.” – David Borsuk, Sadoff Iron & Metal

Willard notes that preshredders run at much slower speeds than automobile shredders, so there are fewer opportunities for sparks or explosions to occur. With the preshredder’s slower speed, it’s also easier to detect and remove unshreddable materials. “The preshredder will allow you to see unshreddables before they cause damage in the car shredder.”

Additionally, Willard says preshredders are much less confined than traditional shredders, which also reduces the explosion risk.

Stepanek adds that Metso’s EtaRip preshredder uses sensors to identify unshreddables. The preshredder automatically will stop if it encounters an unshreddable. “It reverses itself, and you pull [the unshreddable] out of there so it doesn’t make it to the infeed conveyor to feed the auto shredder,” he says.

This year, Milliron Recycling, Mansfield, Ohio, became the first scrap yard in the U.S. to install Metso’s EtaRip preshredder. Stepanek says the preshredder has helped Milliron reduce the amount of abrasive material going into the auto shredder, which will help wear parts in its auto shredder last longer.

Ideally, a preshredder works best when placed next to the main shredder. In some situations where yard space is tight, a preshredder might need to be placed in a different area of the yard. In that case, Stepanek says cranes and conveyors can be used to move the preshredded material to the shredder.

Stepanek says a preshredder might not be the best fit for every scrap yard. However, if space is not a concern, he says preshredders will help in many situations: whether with unshreddables or explosions, spikes in electricity consumption or if wear parts are breaking regularly.

“If you can answer yes to those things, a preshredder offers benefits,” he says.

Practical policies and procedures

Another way to minimize the risk of explosions at the shredder is to revisit a yard’s material acceptance policy and to communicate it to suppliers.

“It’s important that recycling facilities communicate with their suppliers about what is acceptable and under what terms and conditions are materials acceptable,” Borsuk says. “You can’t make an assumption on what a yard will accept.”

In some cases, a scrap yard’s suppliers won’t be fully aware of which materials are unacceptable. If an unacceptable item comes to the yard out of supplier ignorance, it can pose safety risks.

“Some things are difficult to find,” Borsuk says. “Either they’re small—or it only takes one propane cylinder or one lithium-ion battery crushed in an auto body” to cause an incident. So, communication with suppliers about the yard’s material acceptance policy is very important.

Sadoff Iron & Metal has had a material acceptance policy as long as Borsuk can remember—and he’s been with the company for about 49 years. He recommends that scrap yards review their material acceptance policies annually or whenever necessary to ensure dangerous materials don’t end up at the facility.

“It’s something you can’t be complacent with,” he says.

Additionally, scrap companies need to constantly educate employees on how to handle unshreddables that enter their yards. Borsuk advises scrap yards to regularly host toolbox talks with employees to discuss how they should handle unacceptable items.

Each unacceptable item poses a different risk, so it’s important for scrap yard employees to learn about all these potential risks and how to identify them. Borsuk says yard employees also need to know the company’s procedures for removing these items safely from the scrap stream and how to recycle or dispose of them properly.

Borsuk says a propane tank might be handled differently from a lithium-ion battery, but the steps are generally the same for items that pose a potential danger: Identify the material, isolate it and dispose of or recycle it properly.

The author is managing editor of Recycling Today and can be contacted at msmalley@gie.net.

Hyundai adds Earthmovers Construction Equipment to dealer network

Earthmovers was founded in 2013 and recently became part of the National Equipment Dealers LLC (NED) group of companies. Originally based in Stuart, Florida, Earthmovers has expanded with a new branch in Fort Pierce, Florida, and another right outside Orlando in Apopka. Both facilities provide equipment sales and rentals, parts and factory- trained service personnel.

“We are excited about the new opportunity to represent Hyundai and look forward to a long-term relationship in Florida,” Howard Abell, vice president and general manager of Earthmovers Construction Equipment, says.

“HCEA is pleased to announce the addition of Earthmovers Construction Equipment to its North American dealer network,” says Shaun Galligan, HCEA district manager, Southeast. “With their two locations in central and south Florida, their years of experience in the industry and the support of the NED group behind them, Earthmovers should hit the ground running and help HCEA continue to grow its market presence here in North America.”

With the addition of this dealership, Hyundai’s North American network now includes more than 70 dealerships operating in more than 150 locations.

Lynx Equity buys Alpine Shredders

Lynx has acquired the company from George Doerr, a founding member of Alpine who acquired 100 percent of the company in 2015. He will remain with the company, according to a news release issued by Lynx. Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed.

“We had only limited knowledge of the document destruction industry but, after meeting the team at Alpine Shredders, were immediately excited about the opportunity to expand our portfolio into this space,” says Eric Persi, vice president of mergers and acquisitions at Lynx Equity.

Doerr says, “The Alpine team is looking forward to being a part of the Lynx family and continuing its quest to lead the industry for mobile shredding equipment.”

From left: Astafan and Berardi

CM Shredders opens R&D facility

“The new test lab and R&D facility is an exciting new milestone in our long company history of fueling technology and innovation and the latest step in the process of expanding our business activities beyond our traditional tire shredding and tire recycling equipment,” CM Shredders General Manager Charles Astafan says.

The facility will develop and provide new products and processes for customers. A key focus will be providing application support in areas where “tough or exotic” materials traditionally create challenges for equipment and operators in size- reduction applications, CM Shredders says.

“Dedicated application engineers will work with our customers from all industries to solve their very specific issues,” says Martin Berardi, CEO of Bengal Machine, the owner of CM Shredders. “It will also give our clients the opportunity to attend hands-on demonstrations to help better understand processes [and] capabilities and see the quality delivered by CM Shredders’ systems firsthand.”

Bengal Machine, the parent company of New York-based Schutte Hammermill, which has developed an extensive line of hammer mills, lump breakers, crushers and shredders, acquired CM Shredders in late 2018.

Fresh Perspective

Departments - Fresh Perspective

Recycling industry professionals share their perspectives on the industry.

Matt Bedingfield

Chief commercial and strategy officer at Tri-Arrows Aluminum Inc.

Matt Bedingfield is grateful for the opportunities he has been given in the recycling and aluminum industries. Since he joined the industry about nine years ago, Bedingfield has worked at fairly large companies, including Atlanta-based Novelis and now Louisville, Kentucky-based Tri-Arrows Aluminum.

“The aluminum industry has truly been an interesting place to work in the last decade,” he says. “We’ve had a huge sustainability movement, significant mergers and acquisitions, massive growth [and] trade and regulatory issues.”

He adds that some people might find a busy industry “hectic,” but he says he enjoys the busyness and growth.

Recycling Today (RT): Before going to Tri-Arrows Aluminum, you worked at Novelis. How did you end up there?

Matt Bedingfield (MB): I was looking to make a change, and I was just surveying the market to see what was available. A recruiter approached me about the aluminum industry. I’d never really considered aluminum [as a career]. But, once they came to me, they talked to me about the growth the industry was facing. They talked to me about the sustainability in the package, and it became very, very interesting.

RT: How did your experiences at Novelis help you as you transitioned to Tri-Arrows?

MB: When I entered Novelis, Novelis was in an extreme growth phase. So, I got to see a lot of different areas of the business, and it gave me a broad background in a very short amount of time. It really helped me to see what drives value in a business, and that was very important when I got to Tri-Arrows because we were also on the verge of an extreme growth period. Between Novelis and Tri-Arrows, I’ve been involved in about $2.5 billion worth of capital investments. These investments cemented them as two of the top aluminum recycling companies in the world.

RT: What do you see as the No. 1 and No. 2 challenges in recycling today and why?

MB: On the recycling side, the two biggest [issues] are infrastructure and consumer education and behavior.

“Between Novelis and Tri-Arrows, I’ve been involved in about $2.5 billion worth of capital investments.”

Around infrastructure, it’s things like upgrading small bins people have on the curbside to larger carts.

The other one is around consumer education and behavior. It’s hard to get people to recycle. Most people throw away whatever they have unless the recycling bin is just as convenient as the trash can. We’ve seen studies where households will recycle cardboard and bottles, but they’ll throw away their cans. This one really blows me away because the can is the only one that’s infinitely recyclable. That to me says we need better education so people are aware of what they’re doing.

RT:How are you or your company trying to combat these issues?

MB: Tri-Arrows is generating demand for the recycled material. That’s one of the biggest needs out there.

The other thing we’re doing is we were a founding member of what was called the Curbside Value Partnership, and it turned into something called The Recycling Partnership. This is a multimaterial coalition focused on consumer education on infrastructure improvement—the very problems we talked about earlier.

To hear the full interview, visit the Media section on Recycling Today’s website at www.RecyclingToday.com/videos. Do you know any new or young professionals in the recycling industry? Send suggestions to Megan Smalley at msmalley@gie.net.

A history of industry advocacy

Columns - Editor’s Letter

Advocating on behalf of the recycling industry at the local, state and federal levels is critical in light of the present circumstances.

The recycling industry has long been misunderstood by the general public and politicians. The degree of this misunderstanding has come into better focus over the last year as the “collapse” of the recycling industry has been reported in local and national newspapers. This situation makes advocating on behalf of the industry at the local, state and federal levels even more critical. Such advocacy is something that many industry professionals have embraced for some time.

Take Mark Lewon, whose company is the subject of this month’s cover story, “Thriving in mining country,” for example. Lewon is president of Utah Metal Works, Salt Lake City, and he and his father and brother, Don and Chris, have prioritized being on the lookout for industry changes in addition to advocating for the recycling industry at the federal, state and local level.

These tendencies likely have served the company well in the current political environment, when trade policy appears to be having a more significant effect on recycling than the fundamentals of supply and demand.

Lewon has been involved with the Institute of Scrap Recycling Industries (ISRI), Washington, for almost as long as he has been working in his family’s business, having volunteered for positions in his regional ISRI chapter and then with ISRI national committees. He also served a two-year term as the association’s national chair beginning in April 2016.

Lewon sees the rapid changes of recent years continuing for some time. He also says each election cycle can lead to new questions for the recycling industry. Lewon points to turnover among elected officials within his state as one such example. “We find that we have to go back to our regular trips up to the state capitol in order to educate all of the new legislators because they have no idea our industry exists,” he tells Recycling Today’s Brian Taylor.

“The recycling industry has long been misunderstood. This situation makes advocating on behalf of the industry at the local, state and federal levels critical.”

Such involvement was a clear theme of Lewon’s chairmanship of ISRI. In a Q&A with Recycling Today during that time, he said, “As an industry, we have a lot at stake, especially at the state and local levels. This is the case both legislatively and from a regulatory standpoint. … If the recycling industry does not take a proactive approach to educating lawmakers and other stakeholders, there could be serious harm.”

In that Q&A, available at www.RecyclingToday.com/article/multiple-roles-to-play, Lewon shares how his company took action when a Salt Lake City mayor was not supportive of the industry’s issues. “When it came time for the election, we helped another candidate out with resources, and I believe we were among those who helped her to get elected. … This is a clear example of the importance of developing strong grassroots advocacy at all levels of government.”

What issues are prompting you or your company to get involved in the political process? Let me know by emailing me at dtoto@gie.net or by posting to our Twitter feed at @RecyclingToday.

Custom Content - Custom Content | Call2Recycle

Like many sustainability issues, battery recycling awareness and engagement varies across the country. A recent research study commissioned by Call2Recycle noted that 72% of Californians are aware that household batteries can be recycled yet only 44% of households are doing so. The gap between knowledge and action is impeding active recyclers, in many cases, from doing the right thing. The result: they do what they think is right.

Enter “wishful recycling”.

Noted in several academic, industry and consumer articles, this act of putting diverse materials in a curbside bin in the hopes that they are properly recycled is unknowingly creating more harm than good. For example, tossing batteries into the bin with other recyclables can put everyone involved in the battery recycling journey at risk. And the outcomes are directly impacting municipal recycling programs at a time when they are already strained by changing market conditions.

Most notably, China’s ban on imported recyclables and India’s latest ban on plastic scrap imports is taking a toll on the recycling world, causing county and state programs – many of which are balancing limited budget and personnel – to rethink recycling operational strategies. While many topics keep MRF and transfer station operators up at night, contamination likely rises to the top. The worst form of comingling recyclables is when it creates safety hazards, like when batteries are tossed in the bin. With international and national changes afoot, how do municipalities and recycling programs drive change in their local communities?

Consumer education is a good start.

1000 Parkwood Circle, Suite 200 Atlanta, GA 30339

A salient example is a recent California Bay Area public education effort led by Call2Recycle and supported by industry groups devoted to batteries, electronics and power tools. The pilot campaign, titled Avoid the Spark. Be Battery Safety Smart.TM, engaged local partners and consumers across five California counties (Alameda, Marin, San Francisco, Santa Clara and San Mateo) through media coverage, in-market advertising, outreach events and educational resources to drive behavioral changes with the goal of reducing battery safety incidents. Efforts to spotlight the ‘hidden dangers’ of trashed batteries decreased the number of unprotected batteries returned through Call2Recycle from the Bay Area. In fact, battery protection rates improved by more than 15% in July-Oct 2018 compared to July-Oct 2017.

The key take-away: education and outreach can influence consumer behavior and change ‘wishful recyclers’ into ‘responsible recyclers’. Efforts don’t need to be grand or expensive but rather targeted and consistent. By partnering with agencies and organizations to support a consumer safety message, there is much to be gained. More upfront education means less back-end headaches or worse, safety incidents. In this industry, a small investment can go a long way to protect people and property.